Vol 2: Chapter 2-2.
(Trying out present tense, let me know in comments if it’s better)
Zheng’s eyes are bloody red, don’t know if it’s from the anger he’s feeling or Lan’s blood. When the girl disappears through the corner, he charges forward but he used too much strength and is running into the wall.
His enhanced reaction speed saves him at this moment. Everythings slows down, he feels every movement takes a great deal of energy even with his physical fitness. His body feels as if it’s going to tear up. The ground, air, even the wall, there’s seemingly a force from every object pulling on his body to prevent him from moving too fast. He had never experienced this phenomenon before.
When he is reaching so close to the wall, the air feels so condensed like it’s liquid. He can even step on the air and jumped at the wall. Then he kicks on the wall to make the turn. The first thing he sees is an Alien dragging Lan. This Alien is a size smaller than the one before but it’s still over two meters tall and three meters in length. It’s dragging Lan towards the deeper end of the hall. The girl’s left shoulder is crushed. Her body filled with blood. There is only despair and a hint of longing in her eyes.
Zheng suddenly understands that longing, that’s the hope for life and future. Even though he never saw his own eyes, but he knows when he was in a hopeless situation, he must had that hint of longing in his eyes. He’s certain of it!
In Zheng’s eyes, Lan’s image has became Xiaoyi, about to get ripped apart and become a pile of flesh, or it will become himself. When he gets dragged by an Alien, he would have the same despair and longing, then get ripped apart… He doesn’t want this! He has to save this girl no matter what!
“Ahh!” Zheng screams like a madman. He can almost see every movement the Alien makes because everything slowed down. The jump he made off the wall shot him straight towards the Alien.
This all happened in an instant. In Lan’s perspective, Zheng charged at the wall then kicked at it in a weird angle. That kick made a muffled sound, and embedded two footprints on the steel wall. Then he disappeared in her eyes. She couldn’t follow that kind of speed.
Zheng has reached the Alien. He could see the saliva dripping off its mouth, and that long tongue. He swings his steel bar at its tongue with pinpoint accuracy. With a dull sound, Lan falls on the floor. The Alien starts to scream like crazy. Acid sprays from its broken tongue. The tongue was cut in half.
“Ahhh!” It’s not over yet, Zheng screams along with the Alien. He has lost all senses. His eyes are bloody red and filled with frenzy. It may have been the blood of Lan, or they really turned red.
As Zheng lands behind the Alien, he swings at its back. With a sound of metals colliding, the steel bar got bended. Though the Alien is not looking good either. The exoskeleton on its back cracked and acid is pouring out from the wound. The ground is filled with craters from the acid at this point.
The Alien’s speed is just as fast. Even when Zheng could feel the surroundings slowed down, he is only on par with the Alien’s speed. When the Alien swipes at him with its claw, he can barely raise his arm to block it in time. With a loud sound, the impact knocked him to the ground, and the whole hall vibrated. Blood is pouring down from his head from the impact.
Zheng is fighting with his life at this point. He doesn’t have a shell as tough as the Alien’s exoskeleton. When he blocked the swipe, it left a few holes on his arm. Not only that, the Alien is so powerful when his head hit the ground, he almost fainted. He bit his tongue at that moment, the pain from it kept him awake.
He’s not even planning to get up, he pulls another steel bar from his back and swings it with all he has at the Alien’s feet. His physical strength and the buff from Qi knock the Alien to the ground. As the Alien falls, it raises its tail and stabs at Zheng’s leg. The Alien’s combat instincts are so strong, it lives up to being a species that evolve for killing and survival.
Zheng’s mind goes blank. He feels as if his body is moving on its own. Countless instincts on combat rise to his mind. He dodges to the side then rolls back, that pulled his leg out from the tail. Then he kicks at the ground and jumps at the Alien, while he stabs at its mouth with the steel bar.
He let go of the bar in the Alien’s mouth and pulled another one from his back. He keeps stabbing at the Alien’s head with it non stop even when the acid from the Alien’s blood sprayed all over his body. He looks like he has gone insane and wants to tear the Alien to pieces. Fortunately Lan reacts in time. She ignores her injuries and jumps at Zheng. It knocked both of them to the ground a few meters away. That’s when Zheng slowly woke up.
The front of his body feels painful and a burning sensation. He quickly takes off all his clothes and attempts to wipe off the acid on his body. The acid causes a sizzling sound on the ground and corrodes the steel like melting ice. Yet, Zheng’s skin only turned a bit dark, there is no sign of corrosion, which surprises Lan quite a bit.
As lan stops his bleeding with the hemostasis spray, she says with a light voice. “It’s great to be alive. Thank you… But why isn’t there any injuries on your skin? The Alien’s blood should be highly acidic.”
Zheng wiped off all the acid on his body. His mind is still blank. Everything that happened felt like a nightmare. He was basically fighting by instinct, especially after the Alien stabbed his leg, he felt like a chain within his body had broken off.
“Maybe it’s because I have high stats in cell vitality and immunization. At least my skin is burned dark by the acid.”
As he tries to take out another hemostasis spray from his ring, his whole body goes into a seizure. A painful and paralyzing sensation starts from his internal organs, like countless ants crawling on them, then this pain spreads to his bones and marrows, then it moves along with his blood to the skin. Gradually all he can see is whiteness, he feels as if he is about to die.
“”Just think about it. Apes reached this limit and became human, then what will humans become when we reach it?”
“Needs a substance similar to the epinephrine hormone that can only be produced by the human body. The crucial point is… it’s a poison. You probably heard of stories like a mother lifting a car to save her son. This actually happened but this woman died soon afterward. Scientists found a micro amount of this substance in her blood.”
“… Genetic constraint…”
Zheng remembers Xuan’s words on genetic constraint. He doesn’t know if he accidentally unlocked this genetic constraint, but he knows that he is struggling on the brink of death. The seizure on his internal organs is getting stronger, blood bleeds through his mouth and nose. Then his lungs also start to have seizures, he can barely breath in any air. He opens his mouth wide struggling to breath.
Lan reacts instantly. She holds onto Zheng’s body and puts her lips on his, trying to give him air. After about ten seconds, Zheng’s internal organs slowly calmed down, then his lungs also starts to breath, the pain on his skin is fading. But Lan doesn’t know and continues giving him air. At the same time, she is also weeping and mumbling. “Don’t die. Please. Don’t leave me alone. Please stay alive with me…”